Flounce

My newest design---





I used Skinny Cotton from Blue Sky Alpacas which was a pleasure to work with. It's a 100% organic cotton that is soft, smooth, doesn't split, and has absolutely wonderful stitch definition.



The dress is worked flat from the bottom up, beginning with the ruffle in the contrast color, and the shaping decreases are worked in the body rather than at the seams so there is the illusion of princess seams.

I think a little girl will really enjoy the flip and flounce of the ruffle.

Flounce Baby and Toddler Sundress pattern is available now to download on Ravelry for $5.00.

Best Thing Since....

..maybe sliced bread.

I was working on my Ginkgo Shawl and was having a hard time following the chart---my problem, not the designer's problem. I tried enlarging the chart and my eye still wandered and I couldn't keep track of where I was. And then I remembered that we carry the highlighting tape at work, and I picked up a roll.

Immediate relief! I highlighted each row as I worked it, peeled off the tape and used it on the next row. What had been a long, hard slog became a quick knit.

I can't wait to make my next charted shawl so I can use this again.

Breakfast of Champions

Up early this morning and noticed that Chuck was in the back room downstairs, thoroughly engrossed in the morning show of the Nature Channel: a hawk on the back wall having its breakfast pigeon.

It was very calm, sitting tall and bending down now and again to have a bite. A squirrel approached, sat and looked at it for a moment, and then decided that going up the walnut tree and over to the opposite wall was the way to go.

I know there are hawks in downtown Philly, building their nests on high buildings, but I've never seen one so close.

PS: Found out from Cliff:"Red-tailed hawk. Eats mice, rats, squirrels, and cats. Not Henry." Always knew there was a reason to keep the cats inside.

Proud Mom Moment

Yesterday, we came home from running errands and found a large envelope on our doorstep from Temple U, addressed to Allie, Do Not Fold marked on it.

Her diploma was inside.

BA in Spanish, Cum Laude.

We are so proud of her, for finishing college, for taking lemons and making lemonade, amd for taking crushing disappointments and forging ahead.

For someone who should have waltzed into any college she wanted (according to her high school teachers and college counselor and according to her grades, her test scores, her talent, her interests, and all common reason), this has been a long, hard journey with various set-backs. I know that the hurt of being rejected twice by colleges she should have been accepted to once will be there for a long time, but the resourcefulness that she has gained will serve her better and longer than a degree from any of those schools.

She makes us very happy.